Did you know, that in the T&C of some popular website builders online, you don’t actually OWN your own website?
While of course you own the content that you create, technically you don’t own the site itself, and you give permission to those platforms to use your content, logos & trademarks for their own marketing and other purposes, and they can continue to use those even if you move your website to another platform.
When you build a WordPress website with Cowgirl Media, you absolutely 100% own your website and all the pieces of it. I do not ask for any rights to do anything other than share your website in my portfolio. You can change it up anyway you like, you are free to have someone else update and maintain it, you can move it anywhere you like should you need to — it’s completely yours.
Having said all of that, here are a few extra things you should know:
- I only work on websites that are hosted by me. This is so I can be confident in knowing that your site will perform at its best and will be as secure as possible. But rest assured, you have full access to your hosting.
- In most cases, the premium products I use to build your site use my developer license. I am happy to share my license with you, as long as we are working together. Should you decide to have another designer take over your website, you will need to purchase your own licenses for these products.
- While technically, since I am the creator, the copyrights for the website design & layout itself belong to me, but by entering in a contract with me, you have permission to use the elements and designs created for your website, whether you continue to work with me or not. And of course all of your written content and images that you provide remain protected by your copyrights, or whoever actually created that content.
Below are a couple of examples:
Example #1:
Let’s say you need a website built, but you don’t have a logo and it’s not really in your budget to create one right now. Instead, I create a simple word mark “logo” with your business name using just lettering, and that is what is displayed in the header of your website. This would be part of the web design process and you would have permission to use that for your website only. You cannot take that file and use it elsewhere, such as a Facebook cover image, your IG profile image, or in any type of print media such as business cards or fliers. If you do that, you will get a bill from me for logo design.
Example #2:
Another example would be that if I created an image or other graphic to use on your site, using my images or graphics that you did not provide. That image is protected by copyright law, and I give you permission to use it on your site. You do not have permission to use that image anywhere else.
If the time comes where you wish to have these items fully at your use other than on your website, we can make that happen for an additional fee to cover the time involved to make those files ready for other media outside of a website.
